The Workaholic Wife ✅

The Theory of the Alternate Universe

I always wonder about the existence of god. As a doctor, I would like to believe in a all powerful body in the cosmos looking over at the puny humans protectively. As a hindu, I have been raised to dump all my heavy burden on god and hope for the best.

Well, it's easy for parents to teach, but it's hard to follow— especially when you have gained weight.

I wake up in a hospital bed, Alisha looking over me as I try to sit up. She pushes me down by the shoulders, making a hushing sound to make me calm.

I'm calm. Very relaxed indeed.

Where the hell is Aniket and Aruvi? Did they just abandon me here to attend the interview for Aruvi's school admission?

"My back hurts." I groan, covering my eyes with the crook of my arm. I block the sunlight peeking through the creaks of my misshaped arm (the one that got stuck in the wheelchair), closing my eyes in frustration.

I want to go to sleep.

"Of course, nimrod. You are carrying two babies."

I sit up like it's Halloween and it's the last chance to get out of my grave. "What?!" I shriek, astounded by the news.

I can barely handle Aruvi— who can't even accept me as her mother. How am I supposed to raise two more children when I can't even be a proper mother for the one I already have?

"You're having twins, Krithi! Isn't that exciting?" She asks, a hopeful glint in her eyes.

Easy for her to say.

"Yeah. Very exciting." I sneer, sarcasm dripping from my tone. "Look, I appreciate you caring for me and all, but where is Aniket? I need to talk to him about this. I'm not ready to do this pregnancy thing, and it's driving me crazy to think about the fact that Aruvi—

She doesn't know about Aruvi.

I smile sheepishly at my glaring best friend. "Um, did you, perchance, know that I have a five year old daughter?"

She laughs. Wait a minute! Why is she laughing? Maybe she's gone crazy. Or she has switched bodies with that weird nurse who laughs at everything. I'm pretty sure it's not the latter.

"Yes, your husband told me about Aruvi." She says, putting a gentle hand on my shoulder as if she was delivering bad news. In her perspective, being in the same room with Aniket is probably appalling after that awkward moment they shared in college. "She's very cute. I met her a few hours ago."

A few hours..? That means the interview either got cancelled or they attended it without me.

"Where are they?" I ask her again, trying not to sound creepy or desperate but failing on a landslide.

"Aniket has gone with Aruvi to get your parents and in-laws to visit you." She pause, biting her lips nervously. "Also, I was the one to advice him to let you visit your family. Please don't kill me." She speaks quickly, compressing all the words together.

I chuckle, raising an eyebrow at her antics. "I'm not mad. I was meaning to tell Aniket that he should work things out with his uncle slash adoptive father." I reason, shrugging my shoulders.

"Wait, I'm confused. Adoptive parents?"

"I'll explain." I tell her, edging onto the cliff of the bed and narrating the whole story.

************************************

Half an hour later, the man of my dreams becomes the man I hate the most— after a specific best friend twirling her hijab in the corner of the room,
pretending to converse with Aruvi.